Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank the membership of CEO Roundtable for your kind invitation to join you for this dinner and speak before you.
I thank you Ali – for your stewardship of this important forum, and as one of thought leaders in business and society.
You have asked me to speak on two very important issues. Electricity and Fuel. These two issues are complex and multifaceted – and greatly implicate the wellbeing of our country.
It is therefore always a challenge, given the time we have, to exhaust all facets of any of these issues, let alone all. So, I will focus on just a few dimensions that are relevant to as many of us as possible.
I will spend more time on energy – as I know that is of particular interest to most of you. And in this respect I would like to recognise your statement made in July, which not only delivered concrete ideas on how to deal with the crisis but also improved the quality of the energy debate – quality which hitherto had been so wanting.
I would hope that these kinds of dialogue – between government and private sector, between Members of Parliament and business community will continue – as we strive to make our country better.
First, what is the situation now? I don’t need to tell you this, but for many years now, the electricity that is generated has not been meeting the demand. In addition, we have not been able to ascertain and plan for the actual demand for power in this country. Still, not being able to meet the demand for only 14 percent of households, for these many years, speaks for the challenge we have in the sector. Anyway, this is another debate, but if we are talking about power shortage as a crisis, then we have really been in a permanent crisis.
According to the Energy Minister’s report in Parliament last month, the installed generation capacity in the country is 1,102MW. For a country of 43 million people, this is a very small amount. As of last month, according to the same report, production at all sources was 623MW. Therefore, as we speak, 479MW that we previously had in the grid is now off grid. This is about 40 percent of the capacity. The current crisis is deeper perhaps because this is a record amount of power to go off the grid. For there to be no load-shedding, we need to add at least 300MW back to the grid.
You obviously have read about what transpired in Parliament last month that led to the initiation of the current emergency measures to deal with the current crisis. My assessment of the plan here tonight is with clear understanding that some of the measures promised are ongoing, but also I recognize that there were milestones to be met before December, including statements made by the Minister last week that there will be movements and relief this week, relief that has so far not materialized. And indeed some of us are duty bound to speak up when we see the public losing trust and confidence in public officials.
So, what entails in the current Emergency Plan?
For full speech CLICK HERE
I would like to thank the membership of CEO Roundtable for your kind invitation to join you for this dinner and speak before you.
I thank you Ali – for your stewardship of this important forum, and as one of thought leaders in business and society.
You have asked me to speak on two very important issues. Electricity and Fuel. These two issues are complex and multifaceted – and greatly implicate the wellbeing of our country.
It is therefore always a challenge, given the time we have, to exhaust all facets of any of these issues, let alone all. So, I will focus on just a few dimensions that are relevant to as many of us as possible.
I will spend more time on energy – as I know that is of particular interest to most of you. And in this respect I would like to recognise your statement made in July, which not only delivered concrete ideas on how to deal with the crisis but also improved the quality of the energy debate – quality which hitherto had been so wanting.
I would hope that these kinds of dialogue – between government and private sector, between Members of Parliament and business community will continue – as we strive to make our country better.
First, what is the situation now? I don’t need to tell you this, but for many years now, the electricity that is generated has not been meeting the demand. In addition, we have not been able to ascertain and plan for the actual demand for power in this country. Still, not being able to meet the demand for only 14 percent of households, for these many years, speaks for the challenge we have in the sector. Anyway, this is another debate, but if we are talking about power shortage as a crisis, then we have really been in a permanent crisis.
According to the Energy Minister’s report in Parliament last month, the installed generation capacity in the country is 1,102MW. For a country of 43 million people, this is a very small amount. As of last month, according to the same report, production at all sources was 623MW. Therefore, as we speak, 479MW that we previously had in the grid is now off grid. This is about 40 percent of the capacity. The current crisis is deeper perhaps because this is a record amount of power to go off the grid. For there to be no load-shedding, we need to add at least 300MW back to the grid.
You obviously have read about what transpired in Parliament last month that led to the initiation of the current emergency measures to deal with the current crisis. My assessment of the plan here tonight is with clear understanding that some of the measures promised are ongoing, but also I recognize that there were milestones to be met before December, including statements made by the Minister last week that there will be movements and relief this week, relief that has so far not materialized. And indeed some of us are duty bound to speak up when we see the public losing trust and confidence in public officials.
So, what entails in the current Emergency Plan?
For full speech CLICK HERE
BLA BLA BLA ! ! ! days come and go it is just story telling everyday from parliament,state house,minister etc Tanesco bosses are paid handsomely,the people suffer and they accept,so lets leave things as they are because people themselves as Tanzaniana are stupid!
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect Mr. January, you are the chairman of the energy committee..but ur article portrays you as an outsider, why? Shouldn't you have taken the responsibility and tell us what is going to be done and not what ought to be done?
ReplyDeleteTanzania has the second largest energy intensity in the world. Mr. January,energy intensinty is the fuel used per unit GDP.Only Uzbekhstan has higher intensity compared to us,....and they dig their own oil.
ReplyDeleteInstead of yapping about EWURA,why don't you talk about the need to control the aggregate demand of fuel.It's through improved efficiency and cut backs in unneccessary fuel consumption, eg.increased public transportation,and regulating the whole transportation industry especially limiting or heavily taxing importation of vehicles and machinery that consume a huge amount of fuel per mile or unit of production.
This should include the electricity sector too,there's no need to import diesel/ptroleum/jet fueled generators...be it emergengy or non emergency.
Other than that, you will just be siding with the bussiness community,which honestly is the enemy of the poor.